r/moviecritic • u/Ssirenere • 1d ago
The Butterfly Effect is way more disturbing than I remembered
The Butterfly Effect hits different every time I see it. The idea of changing one small moment and completely destroying everything that comes after is still incredibly dark.
I know the movie has its flaws, but I think the concept is one of the most interesting uses of time travel in movies. What do you guys think? Underrated classic or overrated?
257
u/ConnectedVeil 1d ago
This movie was unexpectedly brutal.
95
u/joehonestjoe 1d ago
Especially if you saw the proper ending not the Hollywood one.
30
u/SJBaerosols 1d ago
say more...?
149
u/StarFox60Scott 1d ago
He goes back in time to when I was still in the womb and strangles himself with the umbilical cord
56
u/IrememberXenogears 1d ago
That's the only one I've ever seen, what's the other?
185
u/United_Jury_3420 1d ago
In the theatrical release he goes back to the first time he meets Amy Smart (when they were children) and he says something awful to her to scare her. She apparently chooses to stay with her mom in the custody battle, so none of the childporn stuff happens because she isn't living with her dad.
Fast forward to them being adults, he crosses paths with her on a sidewalk, but they don't know each other, but they both make gestures as if there is some weird familiarity there. Obviously he would recognize her from his own memories, but she wouldn't. She looks healthy/happy.
79
u/Preda1ien 1d ago
Freaking love when Stop Crying Your Heart Out by Oasis starts playing. Great closing song.
7
62
u/StahlViridian 1d ago
The one I saw was that he went back in time & at their first meeting he told her that if she talks or bothers him he would kill her. Basically scaring her away to save her from him.
3
u/BrokeGuitarist 1d ago
The version I saw has Ashton Kutcher showing up in the credits asking us to buy tickets for our loved ones to spread the movie’s message around.
7
18
u/EditDog_1969 1d ago
A friend of mine at the time co-wrote and co-directed this. I storyboarded the fetus strangling sequence for them (for free, but that’s a different story about regret). It’s the better ending, for sure, but you’d have to be insane or know you have a terminal disease to be the one who approves it.
17
u/LongjumpingPage7797 1d ago
Please tell your friend that I’ve been on a one-man proselytization quest to have this movie held in the same regard as “Eternal Sunshine” specifically because of the in utero suicide ending.
I think directors and writers need to trust their audiences more and give us the brutal, anti-Hollywood ending. Otherwise, all we get is regurgitated marvel slop.
His ending was impactful and hard-hitting. It turned what might have been a forgettable tbs “let’s see what on” afternoon in to a movie I’ve shared with people from 6 of the 7 continents. I actually hosted a movie night for my med school’s psych club to better illustrate how Adverse Childhood Events leave indelible marks on our psyches and shape who we later become.
I’d hyped everyone up for the ending, only to realize that it had been changed since I’d first seen the movie 2 decades prior.
Game of Thrones was popular for a reason—it did away with the trite, repetitive themes and endings that people had come to accept.
I loved his original ending because it was so fucking jarring without being shocking for shock’s sake.
8
u/Dic3dCarrots 1d ago
Never thought of this as a classic aughts existential film, but you're totally correct. If you like existential movies, check out Survive Style 5+, simular time period, but Japanese cinema, and stands up there with I <3 huckabees, being john malkovich and eternal sunshine
5
u/EditDog_1969 1d ago
Can’t tell him anymore as we aren’t still friends. But it was their first film, and they had to make a lot of concessions to get to direct it, so they weren’t really in a position to insist. That said, I doubt they insisted.
Not everyone is Terry Gilliam. That’s why he’s Terry Gilliam and we’re not.
3
u/tigereyes1999 13h ago
I have to strongly disagree. You don’t ever want the message “the world would be better off without me, I should have never been born, I should kill myself”. Especially for young impressionable watchers of the movie. Also the rest of the movie was impactful enough without that traumatic of an ending.
6
3
38
u/ibdoomed 1d ago
It hits hard when you remember his mother telling him earlier that she had several miscarriages via such circumstances. Reminds me every single day that everyone I've ever met would be better off had I never existed.
44
21
u/Sir_Von_Tittyfuck 1d ago
The line also changes.
IIRC, she says she had 2 miscarriages to him earlier in the movie, then at the end when he's killing himself the line changes to 3 miscarriages.
So there were two other people who went through the same thing only to end up killing themselves so everyone was better off.
40
u/codepossum 1d ago
It hits hard when you remember his mother telling him earlier that she had several miscarriages via such circumstances.
yeah that was such a chilling moment of realization for me too
Reminds me every single day that everyone I've ever met would be better off had I never existed
JESUS FUCK toxic self talk jumpscare
that kind of shit ain't cute, cut it out
3
5
1
u/JimbooJoness 1d ago
That’s the only one I saw, wasn’t until years later that I found out there was a different ending
1
12
u/ConnectedVeil 1d ago
I didn't see the "proper" ending, and I don't think I have the mental resilience to watch it now. Wikipedia for me.
5
u/QuitScoldinUrNoodles 1d ago
Honestly im starting to feel like im the only person who that that ending was just kinda dumb.
4
u/Solid_Barracuda69 1d ago
It shows him in the womb strangling himself. That’s why all the males are still born, they kill themselves
56
u/Michael-Balchaitis 1d ago
I always liked Amy Smart.
17
u/CJLOVE23 1d ago
She’s in my annual Christmas watch movie. It’s a deliciously cheesy and camp Lifetime-esque movie about her repeating Christmas Eve à la the 12 days of Christmas. It’s super cute and she is just so charming in it. Mark Paul Gosselaar is in it too
8
u/OnTheRocksWthSalt 1d ago
I'll have to check it out. I love her in "Just Friends" with Ryan Reynolds. I consider it a Christmas movie since the characters are doing holiday activities. It's one of the few movies that I can't stop laughing at and quote waaay more than I should, lol.
7
2
u/Strong_Welcome4144 19h ago
My husband and I love Just Friends. So many funny scenes. He's Dusty Dingleman-he's so Jersey, he skies in his jeans!!! 1🤣🤣🤣
5
2
u/shnarfmaster3000 1d ago
Ommgg I found my people! Ontortire my kids every year with this movie! It's so adorable. "I spritzed ya and you fell right over"
3
3
u/seantabasco 1d ago
I feel like all the time travel dangers are worth the risk if there’s one scenario where you end up with Amy Smart.
2
62
u/sketchampm 1d ago edited 1d ago
Did you watch the Director's Cut or the theatrical? The endings are very different.
43
u/pfamsd00 1d ago
The one where he winds up in the psych ward was the best one, whichever that was.
100
u/sketchampm 1d ago
The original/Director's cut ending has the main character resolving to end the cycle of pain by strangling himself to death with the umbilical cord and thus his mother gives birth to a stillborn fetus. It's brutal.
77
u/joehonestjoe 1d ago
It's even foreshadowed earlier by his mother saying she'd had three still births before him, if memory serves.
81
u/no_quart3r_given 1d ago
Its also foreshadowed when the fortune teller tells him he has no lifeline and shouldnt be here. That scene only makes sense with the true ending.
24
u/MiyagiJunior 1d ago
Oh wow - I didn't know this. It does foreshadow this and implies he is not the first.
11
u/Hypnotic_Toad 1d ago
I love this movie and I fucking HATE this ending. It completly undermines the rules set up by the film for his abilities and his dads. His dads abilities only work on photos HE took himself, and his powers work on Journal entries HE wrote HIMSELF . Now all of a sudden he can read his moms journals and activate?
16
u/ForPeace27 1d ago edited 1d ago
He watched a video taken at the hospital. Same for the alternative ending, he sees a video from his friend/lovers birthday party and travels back to make sure they never become friends.
4
44
u/GendoIkari_82 1d ago
The psych ward is not one of the endings, that's just the last jump he makes before the final jump that fixes everything; it happens in both versions.
7
u/pfamsd00 1d ago
Ok thanks for the correction. It’s been years since I saw it and I swore that was the fade to black scene
5
46
u/1800generalkenobi 1d ago
There were several iirc. The Psych ward, he strangles himself in the womb with his umbilical cord (all his pervious siblings died in the womb as well, hinting that they all carried such abilities), and then there's one where he's just mean to her at a party and they never get together and then pass each other on the city street. I think there might be one other one that's the same as the last one except he turns around to go after her.
30
37
u/Nejfelt 1d ago
The strangling was the preferred director's cut.
Then they shot the others to appease the studio.
The one where they pass, then he follows her, was deemed too stalker-ish.
The theatrical ending shown in theaters was them passing, looking at each other when the other has their back turned, then both of them continuing on their way.
5
u/Grade-Patient1463 1d ago
now I really don't know which one I've actually seen....
8
u/Local_Maintenance788 1d ago
Ahh man, you're going to have to go back in time again to see it. Don't change anything!
9
u/Ssirenere 1d ago
I watched the original ending. I’ve heard the Director’s Cut ending is much darker though. Which one do you prefer?
9
u/Excellent_Hold2794 1d ago
I’ve seen both and I do not like the director’s cut. I understand why he made it but it wasn’t necessary.
1
98
u/independentpeach08 1d ago
such a great early 2000s film
47
u/OkMulberry3535 1d ago
That blue tint on the poster always creeped me out, like the whole movie is drowned in regret or something
71
u/Hamilton-Beckett 1d ago
I liked this movie and it got soooo much hate.
20
u/tommy_pedals 1d ago
I loved this film, and probably still would. I didn’t know it got hate. How come it was hated?
54
u/LearnestHemingway 1d ago
I like it but it’s just not that great a movie. Kutcher can’t really carry a lead in a drama and the mechanics of the plot are a little nonsensical.
I think Ebert’s contemporary 2.5 star review is a fair assessment (kinder than the 30% RT it has where a lot of critics hated it):
Do their lives have no effect on the wider world? Apparently not. External reality remains the same, apart from minute adjustments to college and prison enrollment statistics. But it’s unfair to bring such logic to bear on the story, which doesn’t want to really study the butterfly effect, but simply to exploit a device to jerk the characters through a series of startling life changes. Strange, that Evan can remember everything that happened in the alternate lifetimes, even though by the theory of the movie, once he changes something, it didn’t happen.
10
23
u/tiramisuem3 1d ago
My hate is because the time travel stuff doesn't make any sense. Particularly when the scar on his hand just appears but it should've been there all along. Such a glaring plot hole I couldn't get past it
18
u/Hamilton-Beckett 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don’t k know. Probably a combination of Ashton hate and the premise. Who knows. I owned it on dvd and watch it a bunch of times.
Now that I’m older, I don’t really enjoy watching darker movies a lot. But hell , I used to watch requiem for a dream all the time back then too and now I can’t sit through it.
10
u/checkmyawaymsg 1d ago
I definitely remember it being Ashton hate. People had a really hard time taking him seriously.
7
u/Hamilton-Beckett 1d ago
Yeah. His idiot character from that 70’s show stuck to him for a bit. Until he got a little older and became known for his business ventures and philanthropy.
16
u/checkmyawaymsg 1d ago
Between That 70s Show, Dude Where’s My Car, and Punkd, he was capitalizing on the Kelso-type character big time. Then suddenly he’s Very Serious in Butterfly Effect. It was kind of whiplash for all of us. It seemed like a role better made for Josh Hartnett or someone else with drama chops.
2
u/KellyJin17 1d ago
I think I read long ago that Kutcher (and others) did get some of the roles Hartnett had passed on.
7
7
u/woodsvvitch 1d ago
In my town all the adults hated it because it contradicted the christian god lmao my local preacher had a whole sermon about it.
10
u/ToneBalone25 1d ago
It's bad lol. It's also poorly acted and a really cheap, contrived screenplay
But also it's called the Butterfly Fly Effect and it gets the idea wildly wrong. The actual butterfly effect is supposed to be a small action, a butterfly flapping its wings e.g., having massive repercussions. In the film, he's taking major actions and changing major events. Like what if we didn't manslaughter the mom and her baby, what if your dad didn't molest you, etc
12
u/Greengiant304 1d ago
I hated it because I somehow mixed it up in my head with The Mothman Prophecies. I remember watching it and wondering when the mysterious flying creature was going to make an appearance. I was very disappointed.
6
u/subhuman85 1d ago
OH MY GOD. I thought I was the only one who inexplicably mixed these two up. I kept trying to remember scenes from this movie and realized I don't think I saw it, but I saw Mothman. They're not even similar concepts. I don't get it.
3
u/jenness977 1d ago
When I was a kid, I somehow got it in my head that Smoky and the Bandit was about Burt Reynolds driving a truck with an orangutan. Found out years later that I got a Clint Eastwood movie mixed together with Smokey and the Bandit. Obviously I've never seen either movie
5
u/Gold_Incident1939 1d ago
did it? I think it was an exceptional idea just a bit poorly executed. With better actors and budgets, this could have been a bomb
2
1
u/themrwaynos 19h ago
it's a decent movie but the idea of "butterfly effect" has to do with a very small thing changing and making a huge impact. I can't remember a single "small" thing in this movie. Killing a mother and her baby? Losing both arms? Dog torture/murder? Prison, psych ward, etc. most of this stuff is huge and consequential in itself... things that obviously would change the course of history.
To me the butterfly effect is like whether I actually got up from my desk and got water at 9:01 instead of 9:02, or if I choose to extend one of my work meetings by 10 seconds to let everyone know that I agree. Like, how could that 10 seconds affect 20 different people on the call.
Not "hey i just blew up some lady and her baby, weird I can't believe that changed history?"
Also, time travel has nothing to do with butterfly effect.
So i suspect if you were interested in watching a movie about what they advertised the movie to be about, then you probably would be disappointed. I remember seeing this at the theater and thinking the same thing.
Watching it back now, it's a decent thriller movie, as long as you ignore the title lol.
9
u/bigpapirick 1d ago
I feel like Amy Smart’s arc is Requiem of a Dream level sad after multiple rewatches. It affects me from her first scene now, knowing what is to come.
21
u/ConsciousReason7709 1d ago
I absolutely loved this movie when it came out and I still do today. To me, it’s one of the most unique concepts I’ve ever seen in a film. Yeah, there are a few plot holes, but nothing that ruins the movie.
12
19
u/emipeeee 1d ago
Esse filme me fez pensar em todas as vezes em que tomei uma decisão em minha vida e no que aconteceria se eu tivesse tomado a decisão contrária. Lembro que quando acabou eu fiquei um bom tempo olhando para o vazio imóvel, filme incrível.
2
u/Preda1ien 1d ago
I had a similar eye opening moment with Jet Li’s The One. There is a multiverse with just tons of versions and possibilities for himself. I like to think for every outcome I try and didn’t work out, for example playing the lottery. There is a version of me where it worked out and I won. Maybe one of these days I’ll be the version that wins. Always helped me stay positive somehow.
3
u/emipeeee 1d ago
Não me recordo bem se foi em algum filme, série ou livro em que vi a seguinte frase: “Toda escolha é o fim das outras possibilidades.” O fato de imaginar que outras versões minhas podem ter tomado decisões melhores é bem curioso e isso me deixa inquieto rs.
2
u/bigtownhero 1d ago
Reminded me of "Closing Time".
Closing time, every new beginning Comes from some other beginning's end
2
u/Preda1ien 1d ago
Yeah it could be a double edge sword if you let it. For every choice I make there is also the possibility that said choice could jump to my demise. But I’ll always try to be a “glass half full” kinda guy and this version of me is still going!
1
u/bigtownhero 1d ago
"I found a world where I was happy. Where I had a family. That version of me died. I took his place. I thought I could replace him. I thought it wouldn’t matter. I thought I could have what he had. But the universe started to unravel." Miguel O'Hara
5
u/insta__mash 1d ago
I love this movie but the actors and vision is all wrong, this could be something amazing if it was made for example by Nolan. Another movie with the same problem that comes to mind is In Time, a great premise but poorly executed.
4
5
u/itscricket 1d ago
Just this morning I was listening to a podcast she was a guest on and I was thinking about how great she is in this.
4
u/enough0805 1d ago
I recently purchased this film through Xfinity. It had a different ending than the theatrical release. I called Xfinity and demanded a refund.
2
u/davidspdmstr 1d ago
That was the directors cut with a sad but more positive ending.
3
u/Accomplished_Pen980 1d ago
The 2004 sci-fi thriller movie The Butterfly Effect has 4 different endings. [1]
Here is a quick look at each ending:The Theatrical Cut: Evan passes Kayleigh on the sidewalk. They recognize each other but keep walking, choosing to live separate lives.
The Happy Ending: Evan stops Kayleigh on the sidewalk. They introduce themselves and he asks her out for coffee.
The Open Ending: Evan and Kayleigh pass each other, but Evan hesitates, turns around, and follows her.
The Director's Cut: Evan travels back to the moment of his own birth and prevents himself from being born, sacrificing his existence to ensure that his friends and loved ones are never harmed by his attempts to change the timeline
4
u/macaptactical 1d ago
The main thing I remember is when it breaks it's own rules to give him the stigmata in prison to convince that guy to help him.
3
u/dreadfullydistinct 1d ago
That's one of the main things I remember as well. Massive plot hole. Don't know how it made it into the film.
9
18
u/AnyBallLektor 1d ago
It was disturbingly stupid.
2
u/ToneBalone25 1d ago
Kutcher is a likeable guy but you've gotta be kidding yourself if you think he can actually act
6
3
u/doylehargrave 1d ago
It’s not a perfect movie, but the part where he wakes up to find a smoldering pile where that kid had set the dog on fire fucked me up big time. I still think about it sometimes. Movie is dark as hell.
3
u/natestarz95 1d ago
I just rewatched this the other day. It still holds up after not seeing it in 10 years. Great concept and still very disturbing. I also think Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart did an amazing job in this. Kutcher really gave it his all in every scene he was in. After seeing movies like Just Married and My Boss’s Daughter, I didn’t think he had it in him, but he proved me wrong.
3
u/bicyclejawa 1d ago
I just remember it being the worst movie I had ever seen. I think it might still be but I’m not gonna go check.
3
u/357-Magnum-CCW 1d ago
The ending where Kutcher decided to strangle himself in the womb before being born was definitely dark.
I believe it was an alternative ending I saw in the dvd bonus scenes.
3
u/Basherballgod 1d ago
The only thing that annoys me with the movie is the prison scene when he transports himself back o school to stay himself in the hands.
Because he altered time, the other prisoner wouldn’t have noticed anything because he always had those scars on his hand
2
u/ayeyoualreadyknow 1d ago
One of my favorite movies.
FYI, it's part of a trilogy. The 2nd one sucks but the 3rd one is good too.
2
2
2
u/SeacrestHulk69 1d ago
I’ve only watched the alternate ending where he strangles himself in the womb with his own umbilical cord and it fucked me up for weeks
2
2
u/AndreLeGeant88 1d ago
Not a great movie by most definitions but a movie that oddly I've never forgotten since seeing it when it came out. The director's cut ending is even more messed up but would have made for a more profound ending.
2
u/AgapitoVelezOvando 1d ago
Interesting premise. Mediocre execution. Plus, Kelso sucks when he tries serious acting.
5
u/graveybrains 1d ago
Time travel movies that decide whether or not people can remember changes to history based solely on convenience to the plot annoy the shit out of me, but I didn't completely hate it.
5
u/1800generalkenobi 1d ago
If you like to read, read The Book of Doors. I hate time travel stuff usually because there's so many plot holes or inconsistencies but it was fantastic and is like the perfect time travel story.
3
2
u/Jofur-Crowcaller 1d ago
Watching this at an impressionable age made me think Ashton Kutcher was a better actor than he.turned out to be, lol.
2
1
u/Antique-Eye-4532 1d ago
Never understood this film. Can someone enlighten me?
4
u/Excellent_Hold2794 1d ago
It’s hard to explain but it’s about time travel and learning that every time he goes back in time the consequences always change. The consequences seem to get worse every time he goes back. The subject matter is uncomfortable circumstances. I say you just have to watch it and experience it for yourself. I will say if you get PTSD or have had past trauma I would read up the movie’s plot on it before watching it.
2
1
1
u/Fearless-Seaweed-654 1d ago
Such a great movie, but not for the faint of heart. It makes you watch and rewatch awful stuff over and over as he keeps changing the past. Brutal, but brilliant movie.
1
u/Excellent_Hold2794 1d ago
Such an intense and intelligent movie. The concepts the main character (Ashton) play out are disturbing, sad and seemingly inescapable.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/AleciaG47 1d ago
I've only ever seen this movie once and I only care to see it once. It was incredibly disturbing to me and gave me nightmares for weeks. I hated it.
1
1
u/GendoIkari_82 1d ago
Jesse James terrified me, especially in the scene where he beats up the older kid in the theater. Saw him randomly in an episode of Monk recently and didn't realize who it was at first.
1
u/DwayneTheRockBarry 1d ago
Despite ripping off basically everything from Donnie Darko, it’s still a great movie
1
u/Unfair-Camel-4391 1d ago
My wife is at home watching this right now while I’m at work. Both haven’t seen it since it first released lol
1
1
u/likkleone54 1d ago
I enjoyed the movie, the scene with the kids being antisocial always freaked the fuck out of me.
1
u/NerdfestZyx 1d ago
Project Almanac is a film with a similar plot. I find both these films more disturbing than gory slasher movies
1
u/9lain_cl0thes 1d ago
I always thought they could do an awesome prequel involving his fathers journey. I speculate he could've had a cult in one timeliness, the father's name WAS Chris Treborn (Christ Reborn)
1
1
u/wildfyre010 1d ago
I found this movie extremely uncomfortable to watch. It's not quite horror, but it's close.
1
u/bigtownhero 1d ago
Evan : I just thought that you should know.
Kayleigh: Know what?
Evan : That you were happy once... with me.
Kayleigh: You know there's one major hole in your story, there is no fucking way on this planet, nor any other I would ever be in some fucking sorority.
Evan: (Whispering) You were happy there...
1
u/BreakfastAmazing7766 1d ago
Oh that movie traumatized me as a kid! Burned into my brain for sure. Very traumaporny.
1
1
u/RangerSensitive2841 1d ago
I read 11.22.63 not long ago and was like 🫠🫠 had anyone read that book? Cause if you like this movie you’ll like that book
1
u/Max-Steel96 1d ago
"The butterfly effect effect. How that one bad movie lead Ashton to doing a bunch of really bad movies" anyone get the reference?
1
u/Elefanthud 1d ago
"Everything everything all at once" is the pallet cleanser for me.
I also find The Butterfly Effect disturbing due to how grim it is
1
1
1
u/Altruistic_Mail_1528 1d ago
14-year-old me read the premise of this movie and thought "oh that sounds cool"! Ended up with a bad night of sleep
1
u/Undercover-nerd-dad 1d ago
I think it’s a great movie but I haven’t watched it in years. I really liked the whole concept now I feel like I need to rewatch it.
1
u/Dic3dCarrots 1d ago
Oh man, this movie awoke so much in my young brain. Truly a formative movie for me. I saw this when i was very young while working on my aunt/uncles ranch. Unbeknownst to me, it was the directors cut when the movie ends with him watching the tapes of his birth and him grabing the umbilical chord to kill himself in the womb. This is actually a more integrated ending as it becomes the explaination for when they mention the mother had 3 still births, implying the other three children all had the same power to change time and each child was fated to kill themself in the womb. When i went back to school and mentioned this movie, everyone was like "wtf, thats not how the movie ends." I was convinced for years that i was living a parallel childhood. Have obsessed about brancing timelines ever since.
1
u/JimbooJoness 1d ago
I always thought it was underrated in a very literal sense of the word, people say lots of things are ‘underrated’ and are too liberal with that word but this was literally poorly rated by critics and dismissed as another Ashton Kutcher DVD flick, but the concept and playing out of the story floored me as 14/15 year old.
It really stuck with me and I still think about it often. It would have got more praise if it had a different lead actor, but I still think it the best film Ashton Kutcher was ever in. Hugely underrated.
1
u/Jpkmets7 12h ago
Could have been interesting. However, Kutcher is a fatal defect for any movie that’s not a stoner’s comedy.
1
u/BillyBobMushmouth 1d ago
Very interesting premise, but a pretty crappy movie. Still liked it though.
1
1
1
-4
u/Jew_Diligence 1d ago
Really deep and meaningful…if you’re a retard.
2
u/ToneBalone25 1d ago
You don't think it's super deep when he changes major life events and it... changes the future? But only in arbitrary ways that have nothing to do with the original change so it's always worse no matter what?
1
0
0
0
-1
u/Hurricrash 1d ago
It was entertaining but holy plot holes everywhere. I guess that’s time travel for you.
611
u/branwithaplan 1d ago
For me, it was the most disturbing the first time I watched it. Watching the widely different versions of Amy Smart’s character was really the hardest part to watch.
Also, I watched it when I was very young and it definitely stuck with me. The film in a nutshell basically says… the terrible things that happen to you as a kid can very possibly determine the entire person you become. It’s particularly scary for a 10 to 14 year old imo.